First teaser poster for Christopher Nolan's, Oppenheimer

[Wman1996]

curl-6 said:

Finally got around to seeing this one, and it was fantastic.

The performances, (especially Murphy, Downey Jr, and Blunt) direction, script, cinematography, editing, music, all superb.

It beautifully portrays the apocalyptic nature of nuclear weapons and the psychology of the people involved, the setting is realized well, and while the runtime is long it never dragged or felt anything less than engrossing.

If this had come out in 2022, 2021, or most recent years it would have been by film of the year. It just so happened to come out the same year as one of my all time favourite films, Godzilla Minus One, which funnily enough is also about the atom bomb.

I've seen it twice. Once in IMAX Digital (the 35mm was damaged and I didn't feel the need to reschedule) and once around Christmas last year on Blu-ray (family member's house, they don't have a 4K player, that'll be my next re-watch).

Oppenheimer was one of the best of 2023, easily. Its only equal or better was Across the Spider-Verse. 

While I wouldn't go as far to say it dragged, a good amount of the Strauss stuff felt like filler to me. The film is an even 3 hours and probably could've been a masterpiece if about 30 minutes to 40 minutes were cut and maybe a few more minutes of scenes in the film. While I don't think the film glorifies the atomic bomb and war (but I can see why some would say it does), I could've used a couple of extra minutes to get the perspective of the Japanese and the discussion of using the bomb on them. I know it's Oppenheimer's story first and foremost, not the Japanese. But that as it may, I think it would've helped.